A museum can preserve a thing while still arguing about where it belongs.

Keeping something safe and having a right to it are separate questions. A collection can be careful, well funded and genuinely protective, and the object can still have come from somewhere it was taken, with people who would like it returned. Good custody does not settle ownership. Both things can be true at once, which is why the argument does not resolve simply.

When you next meet an object with a complicated history, read the small print about how it arrived. Hold the two thoughts together rather than choosing the comfortable one.